


How the Grinch Saved Christmas

by PompousPickle



Category: IDOLiSH7 (Video Game)
Genre: Christmas, Ensemble Cast, Found Family, M/M, Real Yamato Love Hours
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-26 17:52:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17146322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PompousPickle/pseuds/PompousPickle
Summary: “You’re going to dress up as Santa Claus, crawl through my window, deliver all of the presents, eat the cookies, and get back here before anyone sees you.”Yamato blinked rapidly.“I have a few questions.”





	How the Grinch Saved Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this](https://twitter.com/eins__Kai/status/1077159858997264389) twitter post, and by my lovely beta Rokarca~

“Hey, Mikki, I got a question.”

Mitsuki raised an eyebrow, looking up from the chicken he was braising. It had taken them longer than expected, but the dormitory was almost completely decorated for Christmas. The tree was up, after a lot of struggling, the tinsel was draped, and the stockings were all hung. All that was left was preparing for the next day’s breakfast and dinner.  

It was a tall order, but both Yamato and Sougo volunteered to help. It made the kitchen a bit crowded, so Tamaki remained firmly in the doorway, with both Riku and Iori peaking over the taller boy’s shoulders.

“Hm? Having trouble with the lights again?” Mitsuki smiled a little, looking over at Yamato. The man sighed, resigning himself to go back out to try to rewire the Christmas tree once again.

“How is Santa going to get in? We don’t have a chimney.”

All three of the adults froze. Mitsuki and Sougo looked at each other, silently trying to figure out what they were supposed to say. Both of their minds reeled, not anticipating a question like that at all. Sougo hung his mouth open, trying to come up with some kind of explanation, when Yamato started to laugh.

“Ehh? Tama, you still believe i-”

Mitsuki slammed his fist into Yamato’s stomach, causing the man to buckle over, gripping onto the kitchen counter for support. He grinned at Tamaki, ear to ear, stepping in front of the other man while he coughed and stuttered in pain. “Oh! We’ll…uh…we’ll leave a window unlocked! We can even open it a crack so he knows which one to use.”

Tamaki relaxed visibly, and Riku popped up from behind him, practically bouncing as he hung onto Tamaki’s arm, grinning. “Ooh! It can be my window! I’ve been trying to catch him for years, but Tenn-nii always made me fall asleep before I could get a chance. And in the hospital, my room was always too far from where the Christmas tree was kept.” He pouted a little at the memory.

“Th-that’s no good, Nanase-san. The cold air won’t do any favors for your health,” Iori cut in quickly, before shooting the others a helpless, withering look. They had been talking about this all afternoon, and Iori was fully and completely out of his depth. He looked at his brother, silently begging for help.

Mitsuki and Sougo looked at each other again, and Yamato looked up from where he was bent over. It was a tricky question. How could any of them simply break their hopes, the day before Christmas?

“I’ll volunteer, then,” Sougo finally said, with a soft smile. “I can keep watch and make sure no one other than Santa takes advantage of our open window.”

“You’ll scare him away!” Tamaki nearly shouted.  

“You two are seriously going along with it…” Yamato muttered, turning back to his task of chopping tomatoes. Mitsuki watched him carefully, biting his lip as he wondered if the older man had ever believed in anything at all.

He brushed off those thoughts, deciding that Christmas Eve was not the time to be dealing with them, and turned back to face the younger idols. “Okay, so we’ll use mine, and just keep it unlocked but closed. And we’ll tape a picture to the window so he knows which one! Santa is magic, after all. So he’ll definitely know what the picture means.”

The way Tamaki and Riku both nodded intently was pretty cute, Mitsuki decided. He and his parents had tried to convince Iori, when they were younger, but nothing could really get past his brother. He started explaining the impracticality of it by the time he was in grade school. It was fun to have that kind of innocence back in the household.

“Actually, that reminds me,” Sougo spoke up, heading to the fridge. “We need to make some cookies for, ah…Mister Claus. I’ve been meaning to mention it, and forgot,” he said, struggling to maintain the lie. “We should write some letters too, to thank him for all of his hard work.”

“Seriously? We have to do that much?” Tamaki cocked his head to the side, before Riku elbowed him in the stomach. He sighed, relenting to Sougo’s suggestion. He wanted good presents, after all, and he was willing to do whatever it took to get them.

“I’ll take over the cookies!” Mitsuki said with a confident smile. “We’ve got more than enough hands working in the kitchen right now. You guys just focus on the letters, and making this place look great for the Christmas gathering tomorrow, alright? You can bet I’ll whip up something good for the Big Guy!”

He and Iori locked eyes, and Iori nodded gratefully, ushering the others away so they could all get some work done. Mitsuki smiled, knowing he could count on his brother to keep them distracted enough for everyone else to figure out what to do. Besides, it would be good for him to loosen up and have some fun with everyone else.

As soon they were gone, Mitsuki sighed. “That was a close call.”

Sougo nodded, also letting out a long breath of relief. “It was…pretty unexpected. Though I suppose neither of them had very many traditional Christmases.”

Yamato stiffened, throwing the chopped tomatoes into a bowl and moving onto the celery. “They’re going to find out eventually, you know. It’ll hurt less if it comes from someone they care about, rather than finding out years later that everyone’s been lying to them.” He refused to look at the other two, focusing intently on the task Mitsuki had given him. “That’s just my opinion, anyway.”

Mitsuki blinked, before huffing with frustration. “Yeah well I don’t like your opinion. And you can bet we’re going to talk about it later. For now, I need the marinade started. We need to make this Christmas special. For them, okay?”

Yamato finally looked up, he and Mitsuki locking eyes for a long time. He was right; beliefs aside, this was their first Christmas together. It would be no good if they didn’t make it one to remember. He sighed, tossing the celery into the bowl, preparing himself for Mitsuki’s next order.

\---

Three hours later, and Yamato needed a hot shower and a cold beer. Cooking was a huge pain all on its own. As it turned out, holiday cooking was an entirely different monster. But in the end, he could never say no to Mitsuki asking for help, so he ended up staying until the very last cookie came out of the oven. In his mind, he had earned himself a nice, quiet Christmas Eve night.

Sougo, apparently, had other plans, cornering him down in the hallway before Yamato could reach the door to his room.

“Yamato-san, Nagi bought a card for Manager-san that I’d like for us to sign. Plus, I’m sure he grabbed a few last minute gifts, while he was out. I know you’re probably tired but…”

Yamato groaned. He knew Nagi. And he knew that there was no way he had only bought a “few” last minute gifts. Sougo looked down at his hands apologetically. “I know it’s a lot to ask, but Mitsuki-san agreed to help wrap too. And if it’s the four of us, it should move along a lot faster…”

Yamato sighed, realizing that the other man wasn’t going to let this go, no matter what he said. “Fine. But after, I get beer. And a bath.”

Sougo smiled, and Yamato could almost swear there was something sinister about it. He blinked, clearly going delirious from the oven’s heat and the overwhelming about of cooking. “Of course, Yamato-san.”

But then as soon as they entered Nagi’s room, Sougo slammed the door, locking it behind him. And Yamato knew that he hadn’t imagined anything at all. He opened his mouth in a panic, to ask what exactly was going on. However, before he could say anything at all, he felt two hands grab onto each arm, pulling him backwards into the room, turning him around.

“Yamato, I heard you almost did a very bad thing,” Nagi said with an exaggerated frown, his eyes twinkling with severity and mischief. Yamato’s blood turned to ice.

“Very bad, actually. He almost ruined Christmas. A regular Grinch.”

“Really? _Ruined_ is such a harsh word, Mitsu.” Yamato smiled casually, backing up to get away from the other two, staring him down with predatory smiles. His back hit Sougo’s chest, not even daring to turn around. “And how did Nagi even find out? I’ve been with you guys the whole time.”

“I have my ways,” Nagi winked, and Yamato sighed.

“Fine. What do you want?” Clearly they were after something, and clearly they were going to force Yamato to do it no matter how many excuses he stammered out. Besides, it was the giving season, and odds were that it wasn’t going to be that bad.

“You’re going to dress up as Santa Claus, crawl through my window, deliver all of the presents, eat the cookies, and get back here before anyone sees you.”

Yamato blinked rapidly.

“I have a few questions.”

Sougo cleared his throat. “Unfortunately, we’ll need you to dress up in case someone waits up to see you. Riku-kun mentioned attempting to capture Santa, so we’ll run interference just to be sure. The same reasoning applies as to why you still need to climb through the window. It’s a precautionary measure.”

“Nagi has a Santa suit on hand-” Mitsuki continued.

Yamato sighed. “Of course he does.”

“Of course I do!” Nagi gasped, offended at the mere implication that he wouldn’t.

Mitsuki cleared his throat, loud and clear. “Nagi has a Santa suit on hand, so putting together the costume won’t be an issue. We can’t have too many people running around, so you’ll have to take care of leaving evidence that ‘Santa’ has been there. Does that take care of the questions, Old Man?”

“When did you three plan all this?”

“Just now!” Nagi said excitedly, clapping his hands together. “It’s good, isn’t it? It’s going to be a very magical Christmas!”

“Okay. Next question then,” Yamato started, before Mitsuki glared at him.

“There’s no way you can get out of it,” he said, taking the words right out of Yamato’s mouth.

“You have the best frame for it, and the glasses add a nice touch. Besides,” Sougo then said, softly. Yamato turned around, seeing his gentle expression turn into the slightest frown, “don’t you want to make sure everyone has a good Christmas?”

“You’re not playing fair, none of you.” Yamato wasn’t entirely convinced that they couldn’t have a good Christmas the normal way, without costumes and fanfare.  Plenty of parents perpetuated the lie of Santa Claus without ever wearing a Santa suit. There was no reason he had to be any different.

“Plus,” Mitsuki mused with a knowing smirk, “if you’re a good Santa, maybe later I’ll sit on your lap.”

Yamato’s eyebrows shot up to his forehead. Sougo cleared his throat again, awkwardly. Nagi merely gave Mitsuki a thumbs up.

Yamato really was useless to fight them.

“Fine. But that many cookies will give an oniisan a stomach ache, so you better make it worth my while.” Yamato relented, looking out towards Nagi’s bed to make sure no one could see the way his face flushed over.

“Great!” Mitsuki clapped his hands together. “In the meantime, to make sure you don’t try to escape, Nagi prepared some entertainment for us!”

“Merry Magical Cocona’s Holiday Miracle!” Nagi shouted with glee, running over to his shelf to grab the DVD, and his limited holiday edition Cocona plush. So they could all watch together, as a proper family. He darted back to the others with a grin, blithely ignoring everyone’s grimace as they all nodded along, thinly feigning excitement. They would change their mind as soon as they watched the film.

Yamato only shook his head. So much for his beer and quiet Christmas Eve.

\---

“Hurry _up_ , Old Man. You’re making too much of a ruckus!” Mitsuki said from his window, looking down at Yamato, who had wedged himself between a tree and the dormitory wall, slowly scaling the way up to his boyfriend’s window. It would have been a nice romantic image, if it weren’t for the red polyester suit and itchy white beard strapped to Yamato’s face.

“I thought that was the point of having me enter through your window in the first place,” Yamato pointed out, looking back up at Mitsuki, nearly slipping in the process. However, before he could, Mitsuki lunged forward, grabbing out for his hand.

Yamato clung onto it, smiling for a moment as he let the other man support him. Mitsuki smiled back down at him, almost lovingly, before bringing his other arm forward to help hoist Yamato up, and into his room.

“You know Mitsu, you’re surprisingly strong for a guy your siz-”

Mitsuki slapped his arm with force. “You’re supposed to be Santa right now. I suggest you start acting like it.”

Yamato lowered the timber of his voice, puffing out his chest. “Ho ho ho, Mitsu, you’re surprisingly strong for a guy your size.”

Mitsuki’s eye twitched. “Just go get the presents.”

\---

Placing the presents under the tree was pretty simple. He just grouped them all together by person, and then lined them all up accordingly. His next task was the stockings, however, and he quickly realized how out of his depth he was. The bag of items was massive, and the sheer variety of gifts was insurmountable.

There were a few small collective figurines and magical girl gacha toys, and it easy enough to figure out where those belonged. And then there were the items and candies he himself had grabbed to give out. But he couldn’t begin to decipher where all of the other small knickknacks were supposed to go.

He rummaged through the bag with a frustrated sigh. Playing Santa was a lot more work than he thought it would be.

Midway through his searching, he found a small note, written in Sougo’s neat, curvy handwriting.

_Mitsuki-san and I created a small cheat code for you. Sorry that we didn’t have time to keep things better organized, but this should help._

Yamato pumped his fist in relief. Those two could be real sadists sometimes, but when it came down to it, they were both pretty reliable.  

He went through the lists they had created, filling each stocking one by one. When he thought about it, the answers were a lot more obvious than he first thought. After a moment, he discarded the sheet entirely, placing all the King Pudding items in the light blue stocking, all the superhero items in the red, and so on and so forth. He smiled to himself, quietly amazed that he really did know his fellow idols better than he thought.

Until he came down to a small blue bear, with a cute little bow around its neck, looking at him with sweet, wide eyes. He turned it over in his hands, until he found a tag on it.

_To Iori, from your loving parents._

_We saw you admiring the one we had displayed in our shop, and we thought you would like one of your own to remind you of home._

Yamato almost laughed out loud. He supposed everyone was full of surprises, sometimes.

Last was the “evidence”, as Mitsuki liked to call it. The milk and cookies. He grimaced. It wasn’t exactly that he disliked sweets, and he always trusted Mitsuki’s expert baking and cooking skills. But he didn’t particularly have an appetite for it either. Especially since none of the cookies appeared to have chocolate in them. However, a deal was a deal, and he grabbed for one anyway, noticing three letters next to the plate.

Yamato froze.

He should open them, at least. He didn’t have to read them, but they had to know that he-that Santa- had read their words of thanks. It was a part of his duty for the night. He could just tear open the envelopes, and then leave the papers out and folded neatly- unread but not untouched.

He pulled out the first one, and took out the paper inside. And despite himself, his eyes caught the words anyway, curiosity overtaking him.  

_Hello!_

_Sorry, I haven’t written to you since I was a little kid, so I don’t quite remember how to do this. It’s kind of embarrassing! How have you been? Busy as ever, I guess. Sorry, this is a little awkward, but Tamaki and Iori are writing one too so I don’t want to look like a downer._

_I just wanted to say thank you for all of your hard work. We’re putting in a lot of effort too, and it’s been a lot of fun! I bet you picked out a lot of great gifts for us this year!_

_Still, I know this is a lot to ask, but I do have one more request, if you have the time. I know its last minute, but my breathing gets pretty bad in the winter. I saw a new inhaler on TV, that’s supposed to be pretty strong. I got the prescription, but I didn’t have the money to actually order it. I didn’t want to worry the others with it. Like I said, pretty last minute, so I’d totally understand if you can’t do it right now. But I still want to keep singing and dancing with everyone for years to come! If there’s any way to do that, I want to try._

_Thank you for all you do!  
Riku _

Yamato most certainly was not tearing up.

However, he _was_ thinking about how to put in an order overnight. It probably wasn’t doable, but he could at least write a letter back, as Santa, telling Riku that he was working on it. It was a pretty hokey thing to do, and he wasn’t sure if Riku would even believe that Santa really rushed out to get some new-market medicine just for him. But Yamato could at least make the lie look convincing.

After all, wasn’t that what he was good at?

He opened the next letter, deciding that he was already in too deep, and might as well go all the way.

_Thanks for all the presents. I hope there’s lots of pudding for me._

_And thanks for finally bringing me people to spend Christmas with. I like them a lot._

_Next year, I want to spend it with Aya too._

_Tamaki_

Yamato’s hands shook, realizing that maybe opening these letters was a bad idea after all. He couldn’t respond to that one. Not as Santa, and not as Yamato. There was nothing _anyone_ could really respond with. Still, they were all going to work hard to get Tamaki out there, on TV. It wasn’t much, but maybe by this time next year, they would have yet another member to their little family.

_Greetings, Mister Santa._

_This is a little hard for me. As you know, I’m not terrifically great with being outright with my thoughts or feelings, and I’m not always completely honest with myself. Then again, neither are you, are you? If you’re really standing here reading this, though, that means you are trying your best. So I suppose I owe it to you and Nii-san to try too._

_I overheard you and your “elves” talking, earlier this evening. You didn’t seem too excited, back then. You even tried to back out of it, several times. However, you still did it, didn’t you? You’re likely reading this in an oversized red suit, with a big hat on your head and a horrible fake beard on your face. I’m sure I’ll get to see a picture someday. I look forward to it._

_The others said they thanked you for the presents, and asked for something for next year too. I won’t be any different._

_Thank you, for looking after IDOLiSH7. I know you don’t like to show it, but we can all tell you care about us. We all care about you, as well. Thank you, as well, for looking after my brother. I would like for you to continue to take care of him, for as long as you are physically able. Please continue to make him happy, and please continue to give him your love. That’s all I want from you, this Christmas and the next._

_Iori “Ichi” Izumi_

“Geez, Old Man,” Mitsuki’s voice rang out in a harsh whisper as he came from around the corner. Yamato had been gone a great deal longer than expected, and the others had already fallen fast asleep waiting for him to return. “Did you get lost or something? What’s taking so lon-“

Yamato was sitting on the couch, tears running down his face as he held three pieces of paper in his hands.

“We really do have a good family, don’t we, Mitsu?”

Mitsuki felt tears build in his own eyes, instantly. He shook his head, trying to ward them away with a soft laugh. He walked over to the couch, sitting down next to his boyfriend. He nestled in close, looking first at the letters he was holding, and then over to the tree.

“It looks good. You did great,” he said, looking at all the presents underneath. It was full of different boxes and bags, of all shapes and sizes, wrapped in paper of all different colors. They were all wrapped with love, and excitement, and the knowledge that they would have many more Christmases to come. He looked over at Yamato, the lights of the tree illuminating his face in the dim common room, catching on his glasses, and the tears in his eyes underneath.

“Do you want to go back to my room?” Mitsuki finally asked, resting his head on Yamato’s shoulder. “I’m pretty sure everyone is sound asleep now.”

But Yamato shook his head, not quite willing to give up the moment. Not quite ready to put the letters down. This was his Christmas Eve, and he had wanted to spend it quietly, after all. He let go of the letters with one hand, reaching down for Mitsuki’s, lacing their fingers together, reveling in the feeling. He decided to let this moment be his Christmas gift. Right there, basking in the glow of a home full of people who loved him.

Basking in the glow of being loved.

**Author's Note:**

> "Rikkun, last night, I saw Mikki kissing Santa Claus." 
> 
> "Oh no! Should we...should we tell Yamato-san?" 
> 
> And then Tamaki full-body tackles him because he's convinced that Santa will take back their presents if they tell. 
> 
> Merry Christmas, everyone!


End file.
